'Sophia's Garden' - Mixed Media for Sale

Here's a bright little mixed media piece I created to kind of balance the dark art I've been delving into lately. I created it using pencil, pastels and acrylic paints, and it's now for sale in my Etsy shop!

Bird Study

A quick sketch I did in preparation for my next painting. This is a Goldcrest, a sweet and very tiny little bird found in England.

Nature's Children

Two new sketches, with just the barest hint of colored pencil. I'm getting into the groove again!

First Sketch in 5 Months...

I finally found the time to sketch after almost 5 months. I can't believe it's it's been that long since I've picked up a pencil...
I call this "In a Mother's Arms"; it's a simple pencil sketch with a bit of colored pencil. It's inspired by what it feels like to be a new mother and to hold your child in your arms for the very first time.

"Expectant" - New Sketch

This is my latest pencil sketch, as I take a break from my acrylic painting (see last post) and try to figure what to add to her to make her more complete. Thank you to everyone who posted such wonderful comments about her, and to all the wonderful suggestions I received both here and on Etsy!
I've been working very hard on a slew of bookmarks, pendants, and even notebooks to add to my Etsy shop. I'm hoping to have a wonderful update very soon!

New Sketch 5-13-09

I saw an incredible pic of a twirling gown while surfing online and was so entranced I just had to sketch it! I did a very rough sketch, changing it up in several ways as I did, and this is what I came up with. I can't wait to paint it! I think I might even try to work this in acrylics on canvas I'm so smitten with it. :)

Work in Progress - 4-30-09

Sorry for the poor picture! I lost the use of my favorite scanner, so I'm kind of making due now with what I have.
Here's the latest sketch I'll be (finally!) turning into a watercolor painting, called "First Flight". It was inspired by the lovely vacation that I just had and remembering my child's very first flight. Hopefully I'll be able to put brush to paper very soon!

Yippee! A Sketch!!!

It's rough; it's not a good scan; it's certainly not my best...
But it's a sketch! Yippee!
Trying so hard to get back up on the creativity horse!

And thank you soooo much to all of my wonderful friends who commented on my last post. Your words meant the world to me, and made me feel connected to you even after my long time away from my artwork and blog! :)

Work in Progress - 1-14-09

Yippee! My first work of the new year! Here's a small sketch that was inspired by my trip to the Dickens Faire this past Christmas. I used a picture of one of the gowns I took to help me a bit with how the dress should look.

Work in Progress - 12-8-08

As busy as the days are leading up to Christmas (I hardly had time to breathe this whole weekend, we were so busy! I do love it, though.) I did manage to sketch this out while relaxing a bit in the evenings. I thought I'd try my hand at practicing illustration, and at the same time get into the spirit of this, my favorite season of the year. I'll hopefully add some color to it when I can catch up on my sleep! Any feedback, as always, welcome. :)

Work in Progress 11-13-08

I literally just finished this sketch. I'll be calling it "Letting Go", and it will be done in watercolors. I came up with a rough draft of it several nights ago, and it just wouldn't leave my head! It's in pencil, so a little light for scanning. I don't know if you can see it, but there's a tiny broken heart she's tying onto the bird's foot.

Work in Progress 11-6-08

I know this picture is awful, but I'm stuck. I have 3 options for painting this and I'm not sure what to do:

1.) paint straight over the light pencil lines
2.) ink all lines of the sketch
3.) ink only the main characters and some main outlines

What do you think would compliment this image the best?

Illustration Try #1! Need Your Feedback, My Friends!

As many of you may know, my ambition in life career-wise is to become a children's book illustrator. I've decided to really start concentrating on that, and am doing everything I can to go forward with this dream of mine. I decided to try a little mock-up of an illustration in this vein to see how it comes out. It's just a work in progress, but I need all the feedback I can get on it! and please, be as honest as possible (within reason! Hahaha!)

(As a post-sidenote, pencils reallllly don't scan well! There's alot of detail that just didn't show up, even on the darkest scan I could manage! And...it's amazing the problems I can see right off the bat when viewing it not on paper but on my computer! Ugh!)

Work in Progress - Shhhhhhhhhhh...I have a secret!

Shhhhhhhh...I have a little secret...

...I'll add mouths to my next few paintings... ;)

So, what do you think? Does it work?

Work in Progress - September 16th

Here's the latest watercolor painting I'll be working on. I'm not sure what to call it yet, so any suggestions are welcome!
I've been wanting to paint this since I first came up with the idea back in June. Still trying to come up with the color scheme, though.

Sneak Peek at next week's contest!

Here's a painting in the works for next week's contest in my Etsy shop and here on my blog...!

Practicing With Pencils

Due to time constraints, I haven't been able to paint as I'd like to lately. All of those sad and lonely white canvases are mocking me at home, there's no doubt about that! And I need a quick outlet for the images that are daily crowding their way into my head. So here's what I've come up with: colored pencils! This way I can take my work with me and pull it out quickly anywhere. Here are the first few tries in this unfamiliar media.
The titles of these pieces are:
(top) "One Heart"
(middle left) "Dreaming of Darcy - Eliza"
(middle right) "For Rob"
(bottom) "Give Thanks"